by Tommy Goudge (September 27, 2008) – Wayne Johnson had never turned a lap at Ohsweken Speedway before Friday night, but that inexperience didn’t slow down the Oklahoma native one bit on Saturday night. Driving a Styres Racing sprinter, Johnson passed race-long leader Dustin Daggett for the lead with 6 laps to go in the 30 lap Feature and held on through a late race caution period to claim the $8,000 victory.

Friday night twin feature winners Dustin Daggett and Jason Barney started on the front row in the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals 30 lap A-Feature, which saw Daggett take the lead and start to pull away when the green flag dropped. Behind them, Wayne Johnson quickly moved up from his 6th starting spot to 3rd by the time the first lap was completed. Daggett was on a mission early on, and ran the fastest lap of the entire evening on lap 2 at 13.497 seconds, more than 1 tenth faster than Chuck Hebing’s fastest lap in time trials. As the 3rd lap was completed, Daggett was already approaching lapped traffic and began to slice his way through the field with Barney, Johnson, Gregg Dalman, and Brad Malloy in tow.

Deeper in the pack, 25th starter Dale Blaney was carving a path to the front, and had advanced to 15th when the first caution flag flew for Barney on lap 8. Barney spun in turn 3 while running 2nd, causing Brad Malloy to spin to a stop to avoid hitting Barney’s #87. Barney, who came into the event riding a streak of 2 consecutive runner-up finishes in the Nationals, was forced to restart at the back of the pack along with Malloy. Malloy, a first-time feature winner earlier in the season at Ohsweken, had made a spectacular charge through the field in his heat race to earn a top-6 starting spot in the feature, and was battling in the top 7 at the time of the incident.

With the green flag back out, Daggett now had the veteran Johnson on his tail, but the young driver from Michigan was still very fast and again quickly began to negotiate through the lapped traffic, while Johnson survived some close calls with lapped cars to keep Daggett’s Mott Motorsports #2m in his sights. An extended green flag period ensued, with Daggett and Johnson continuing out front while Bryan Howland had moved up to 3rd after starting 7th, Dalman continued to hold down 4th, and defending Nationals champion Steve Poirier was into the top 5. Poirier’s bid to win 3 Nationals titles in a row stalled in 5th however, and the Quebec driver began to feel the pressure of fast qualifier Chuck Hebing, and Dale Blaney who was now in the top 7 and looking for more. Hebing and Blaney continued their charge into the top 5, passing both Poirier and then Dalman just after the race had reached the 2/3’s mark.

Back up front, Daggett began to have trouble with lapped traffic, allowing Johnson to move in behind the Daggett machine and start putting the pressure on. During the 25th circuit, Johnson made his move for the lead and took charge for good coming out of turn 4 after a brief battle with Daggett. Johnson quickly began to open a gap as Daggett’s car was not handling as it had earlier in the race, while behind them Howland was trying valiantly to make up ground, and Blaney got around Hebing and into 4th during the 27th lap.

Johnson appeared to have the race in the bag when disaster nearly struck for the 2008 Knoxville 360 Nationals winner as Jason Barney spun again in turn 3 after Johnson had taken the white flag. Quick thinking by Johnson allowed him to narrowly avoid contact with the Barney machine and hold the lead, but the gap he had opened up was gone, and 1 more lap was still to be completed. With the green and white flags waving together, Johnson took off and drove a flawless final lap, finishing 8 tenths of a second ahead of Daggett, while Howland, Blaney, and Hebing rounded out the top 5. Dalman held on for a fine 6th place effort, followed by Poirier, Kevin Job, Mike Stelter, and Doug Emery in 10th. Daggett’s 2nd place was his 3rd top-5 finish out of the 4 Canadian Nationals, while Howland and Job recorded top-10 finishes for the 2nd year in a row, along with Mike Stelter who took home 9th place for the 2nd consecutive year.

61 cars in total signed in for competition on Saturday night, as 8 drivers were on hand who did not compete on Friday night. Only 2 cars did not return as Brett Mann’s #79 SOD Championship machine suffered engine problems on Friday, and Jared Fink’s weekend was cut short on Friday after a hard flip damaged his car beyond repair. A number of favourites expected to be in contention come feature time on Saturday suffered setbacks early in the evening, including Daggett and Poirier, who were able to overcome their issues to have strong runs. Daggett backed his machine into the wall in turn 4, damaging the rear end assembly and suspension components, but quick work by the former SOD champ and his crew got the #2m out at the end of time trials for 1 lap on the clocks. Poirier, meanwhile, had to quickly shut down his #28fm at the end of his 2 time trial laps after a problem with his rear end gears, but his crew too was able to work quickly and get him out for his heat race. Justin Barger, Jared Zimbardi, and Scott Kreutter, among others, were not so lucky with various ailments and did not make the feature.

Chuck Hebing bested the 61-car field in time trials with a lap of 13.613 seconds to take home the Kear’s Speed Shop Top Qualifier Award, while Glenn Styres was 2nd in time trials with a lap of 13.704 seconds and claimed the Bicknell Racing Products Fastest Canadian Qualifier Award. 6 qualifying heat races were run, with the winners inverted into the top 6 starting spots in the feature using their qualifying times. Dustin Daggett, Jason Barney, Wayne Johnson, Gregg Dalman, Brad Malloy, and Dain Naida took the heat race victories, with Johnson and Naida the only drivers able to come from the 6th starting spot in their heat races to win and take an inversion spot. 3 B-Mains were run, with Bobby Breen, Bubba Broderick, and Alain Bergeron claiming those victories. Rick Wilson took home the win in the inaugural Riverside Bar and Grill Non-Qualifiers Second Chance “Little Feature”, earning him the 28th and final starting position in the A-Main. Wilson was driving a car he had purchased on Friday evening after destroying his primary car in a crash with Jared Fink on Friday night, and the Wilson team worked hard to get Rick back out on the track on Saturday night. None of the affiliate sanctions required provisional starting spots on Saturday night, which paved the way for the 3 fastest qualifiers in time trials to take starting positions 25-27 in the A-Feature. This allowed Dale Blaney, Blake Breen, and Mikey Kruchka to start in those positions in the 28 car starting field, the largest in the 4 year history of the Nationals.

Jason Barney’s #87 claimed Corr/Pak Merchandising Best Appearing Car honours, and Dale Blaney was the KSE Racing Products A-Feature Hard Charger by virtue of his drive from 25th on the grid to finish 4th. Drivers from 3 Canadian provinces and 5 U.S. States took part in the event, including Gord Kynoch of Spruce Grove, Alberta, who represented that province in the Nationals for the first time, while Wayne Johnson was the first ever entrant in the Nationals from Oklahoma.

The red flag was needed 3 times on Saturday night, as Chris Muhleisen flipped very hard in turn 1 during the 2nd B-Main, while at the same time John Burbridge, Jr. got upside down in turn 3, but both drivers fortunately emerged unscathed from their badly mangled machines. Tom Huppunen also flipped in Heat Race #4 and Rob Pietz did a rollover in the Little Feature.

Plans are already in the works for the 5th anniversary edition of the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals in 2009, and those dates will be released shortly. Event coordinator Ken Pelkie announced in the drivers meeting on Saturday night that the 2009 Nationals will once again feature a purse increase, as next year’s feature is slated to pay $9,000 to the winner and $650 to start the feature